NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 827 



Nest. — -A slight depression in tin- ground, liucd with lierbagu, near 

 the margin of water. 



H;/;/^. — Clutch, four ; broad oval in sliapa, and of striking 

 appeai'ance ; texture of shell fine ; sui-fiicc slightly glossy ; colour, 

 ligut yellowish-bviil or stone, heavily mai-ked all over with large patches 

 of dark olive or sepia, almost black in instances. These patches, some 

 of which would cover the area of a three-penny piece, assume fanciful 

 figures, and are conjoined with lesser and streaky mai-kings. Where 

 the groiuid-coloiu- is visible greyish markings appear under the suii'ace 

 of the sheU. Dimensions in inches of a. clutch: (1) 1-41! x r03, 

 (•2) 1-37 X 1-0, (3) 1-32 X -98, (4) 1-3 x 10. (Plate 23.) 



ObservaiiuHs. — Although nowhere abundant, and mostly seen in 

 solitary pairs, the Painted Snipe is a home bird, that is confined to 

 Austraha, but is not found in Tasmania. It is handsome, and when 

 seen on the wing may be compared to a huge butterfly or a beautiful 

 moth, 01 many shades of gie}' and brown above and liglit-colom'ed under- 

 neath. There is a white mai'k round the eye, extending towards the 

 back of the head. Bill not lengthened, as that of the true Snipe, but 

 its legs are a trifle longer — total length, 9i inches. Unlike the true 

 Snipe, the Painted bird resorts more to the drier ground contiguous to 

 swamps and lagoons, where it procures its natmal food. 



In the season of 1839, on the Upper Himter, New South Wales, 

 Gould, in dissecting a female, found an egg in the ovarium, nearly the 

 full size and ready to receive its calcareous covering, which left no doubt 

 in the great naturalist's mind that the birds were breeding in that district. 

 My namesake (Jlr. Charles E. Campbell) noticed a pair of Painted Snipe, 

 with a young family, among the herbage bordering the Bvillock Ci'eek, 

 Pyramid Hill, Victoria, during October or November, 1884. Mr. North, 

 in describing a handsome set of eggs taken by Mr. K. H. Bennett, near 

 the mai-gin of a swamp at Ivanhoe, New South Wales, in October, states 

 the nest was a depression in the gi'oimd, neatly lined with broad eucalypt 

 leaves. Mr. George Masters, cmator of the MacLeayan Museum, 

 Sydney, showed me a very fine clutch in the collection of that institution, 

 which Mr. North has since given dimensions, &c., of. Mr. Masters was 

 the first to explode the erroneous idea, that they were the eggs of the 

 true Snipe (GaUinagu), as we had supposed similar eggs to be. 



Breeding months, September to December. 



We know veiy little about the movements of these rare birds. It 

 is probable that, after rearing their young in the south, they retire to 

 more interior quarters during winter. 



